Vucic: We will never give up on our people across Drina

SRBAC - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Thursday Serbia would never give up on Serbs in Republika Srpska and that it would continue to provide economic assistance to it.

After touring a newly-built kindergarten in the Republika Srpska municipality of Strbac with Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik, Vucic said:

"We are one people, we are the same people, but on two sides of the Drina."

"For decades, they have been trying to make two peoples out of us one day," Vucic told local residents who had gathered to welcome him.

"Without asking for anything that is not ours and while respecting the integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina and everything it wants, we will never give up on being the same people and having the same, Serbian language, the same Serbian Cyrillic alphabet and the same religion and, at the end of the day, we need to stand with each other, always," Vucic said.

"Our situation is neither easy nor simple, due to the growing pressure on both Serbia and Republika Srpska and the increasingly difficult situation in Ukraine," Vucic said.

It is important that people in Republika Srpska know that Serbia will always respect international law but that it will never forget or give up on its people, he said.

Dodik thanked Serbia and its leadership for helping Republika Srpska.

"That support is important to us both because of the funds and because of the feeling that the assistance is coming from Serbia," Dodik said, noting that the feeling of being supported was sometimes more important.